The call below was issued by the Free Women’s Assembly. They also put together a factsheet about the blockades, which you will find below:

To Women’s Organizations;

Urgent Call for Action

Women’s Freedom Assembly (KÖM) is calling on your solidarity against the war and massacres that we have been living through for the past eight months. The AKP government and President Tayyip Erdoğan are repressing, through violence, all opposition forces who have been resisting the authoritarian regime that they have been trying to establish in Turkey and destroying all channels of political struggle. They have brought the Parliament to disfunction and suspended the rule of law by taking the judiciary system under their control. Continue reading →

The Free Women’s Congress (KJA) has released the report below about the impact of the current war against Kurds on the peace process. Also available here are two documents, one giving the names and details of some of the children who have been killed since July last year, and another that gives evidence of the deliberate targeting of Kurdish graveyards by security forces.

REPORT ON THE CONFLICT PROCESS, POLITICAL SITUATION, AND WOMEN IN KURDISTAN

FREE WOMEN’S CONGRESS / KJA

10 January 2016

Peace Negotiations Launched

The dialog and negotiations process for the resolution of the Kurdish Issue, launched at İmralı Island on January 2013, entered a new phase on February 28, 2015 following its announcement in the Dolmabahçe Palace before the press by a mixed delegation of HDP and AKP deputies. The Dolmabahçe Agreement, which pronounced a 10-article roadmap for the negotiations process, has enhanced the hope and commitment for peace among the peoples of Turkey, and Kurds in particular. Continue reading →

Below is an excerpt from the latest information file published by the Kurdish Women’s Relations Office (REPAK. It details how women have been targeted by the Turkish state over the last several months.

Public meeting and discussion with author Janet Biehl who talked about the new women’s science of “Jineology” and the revolutionary transformation of education. She has visited Rojava twice and reported on her recent visit. Organised by Peace in Kurdistan Campaign and Roj Women Group at Doughty Street Chambers on 23 October 2015. The meeting was chaired by Elif Sarican, Kurdish Student Union.

The Kurdistan Communities of Women (KJK) has published a new information file called 5 minutes to election: What happened during 20 days of PKK inaction in Turkey? which provides a useful summary of events in Kurdistan since the PKK declared a unilateral ceasefire on 10 October. The report details an alarming number of state-sponsored attacks on the AKP’s political opposition, including curfews in Kurdish districts, raids on HDP offices and military strikes against the PKK.

The report begins with this statement below and is available to download in full here (pdf).

On 21 September 2014, the International Day of Peace, a women’s organisation for feminism in the Middle East was founded. The Foundation of Weqfa Jin Azad in Rojava (Foundation of Free Women of Rojava) was established, in a region in which war reigns, which has shocked the world through its brutality, but also in the context of a great and radical social change and revolution, especially as regards the role of women, which has inspired the world. The Foundation works with the motto “The free woman is the basis of a free society.”

The goal of the Foundation is ambitiously high. Through their work, they want to support women in Rojava, Syria and South Kurdistan in the process of emancipation. They are working for a comprehensive psychological and medical support for women and children, managed by women themselves. Through their nurseries they are forming education for children of all ethnicities in every mother tongue, with the goal of equality between sexes, peoples and religions, and for ethnic and democratic coexistence. They make it possible for women to enter into the economy through establishing cooperatives, creating training opportunities and work for women in different fields, and open up spaces in which women can sell their handwork. Not last, they create living space for women, in which they have the possibility of working through their traumatic experiences of war and to develop their own abilities and talents.

On Wednesday 23rd September at 4pm, a delegation of women delivered an open letter signed by a coalition of prominent women’s rights activists to 10 Downing Street. The letter urgently calls on David Cameron to use his influence with the Turkish government to stop the violence being perpetrated against Kurdish civilians in the south east of the country.

The delegation includes Michelle Allison (Kurdistan National Congress), Evrim Yilmaz (Roj Women Assembly) and human rights barrister Melanie Gingell, who has just returned from a fact-finding mission to Cizre, south east Turkey, which has been under curfew for several days and which has been a flashpoint of violence between Turkish security forces and Kurdish civilians in recent weeks.

Cameron has long insisted that Turkey, a NATO partner, is a strong friend to the UK. On his last official visit to Ankara, Cameron stated that Britain and Turkey would work “hand-in-glove” to combat ISIS. And yet he has turned away as the Turkish government used their apparent entry into the anti-ISIS coalition as a veil to break the ceasefire with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and attack Kurdish towns and villages. Continue reading →

Wednesday 23rd September, 4pm

Join us for a demonstration outside 10 Downing Street!

Kurdish women shout slogans during the funeral of a YPG (People’s Protection Units) fighter in the town of Suruc, Sanliurfa province, on October 14, 2014. AFP PHOTO / ARIS MESSINISARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images

On Wednesday 23rd September at 4pm, a delegation of women will deliver an open letter signed by a coalition of prominent women’s rights activists to 10 Downing Street. The letter urgently calls on David Cameron to use his influence with the Turkish government to stop the violence being perpetrated against Kurdish civilians in the south east of the country.

We received this statement from the Kurdish Women’s Relations Office today:

Urgent call: Turkish state is committing crimes against humanity!

The AKP government-state, which lost its majority at 7 June 2015 general elections due to the success of pro-Kurdish Democratic Party of the People (HDP), is plunging the whole country into misfortune. While dividing all people that live within the borders of the Republic of Turkey in followers and opponents, AKP has declared a total war against all people that do not stand behind. Main target of this total war is the Kurdish political movement as main force for democracy. Continue reading →

The Kurdistan Women’s Community (KJK) have released a report with their evaluation of the latest developments in Turkey and across the region. You can download the full report here and we have included below the first part of the report.

Roadmap of the escalation: How did the Turkish-Kurdish conflict upsurge again?

Political Evaluation by the KJK:

The Turkish state has declared total war on the Kurdish people. The decision to undertake this strategy of total war was made at the meeting of Turkey’s National Security Council on 30 October 2014, when the resistance against attacks by the ISIS terrorist organisation in Kobanê, Rojava (i.e. western Kurdistan, the Kurdish region Syria) reached its peak. This meeting, which lasted more than 10 hours, was illegitimately chaired by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; according to Turkish law, only the country’s Prime Minister can lead National Security Council meetings. Continue reading →

EMERGENCY APPEAL FOR AFRIN

Life in Afrin

Weekly News Briefing

Jeremy Corbyn issues statement of support for the National Demo

Message from Jeremy Corbyn to Kurdish national demonstration in London:
“I’m sorry not to be able to be with you today, but I send a message of solidarity with today’s demonstration, and with the Kurdish people, under sustained attack across the Middle East.
The conflict in Syria has been the trigger for an onslaught against the Kurdish people, who are defending their autonomy and their rights.
We are watching closely the alarming events that have been unfolding in Turkey in recent weeks, including the killing of civilians and destruction of Kurdish homes.
Any negotiated settlement of the Syrian conflict must include peace and justice for the Kurds, including in Turkey. And the Turkish government needs as a matter of urgency to restart the peace process with the Kurds and respect the rights of all its people.
We call for an end to repression of the Kurds and justice for the Kurdish people throughout the Middle East.”

Destruction and Repression in North Kurdistan

Freedom for Ocalan!

On the 19th anniversary of his kidnap and imprisonment by Turkey, we renew our call for Abdullah Ocalan to be freed as part of a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question.